D&D 5E The Blade Lock- A Mini Guide.

One of the better Gish builds I have seen in 5E is the Bladelock. This guide is about a specific way of building said gish and will have a narrow focus. By gish I mean a warrior type who uses arcane magic so that technically excludes the Paladin even though the Paladin is one of the best blade and spell type classes in the game. The number 1 rule with my take on a bladelock (Pact of the BLade warlock) however is do not play a solo class warlock. Why? there are multiple reasons.

1. You do not start with proficiency in con saves. Important since you want to use Hex.
2. Your AC tends to be terrible.
3. The class is MAD or multple ability dependent. Ideally you want high dexterity, charisma, constitution score and you do not get that many ASI to buff to scores.
4. RAW you more or less need the warcaster feat.

However there has been errata added to the game which impacts gish types.

Two-Handed (p. 147). This property is relevant only when you attack with the weapon, not when you simply hold it

This makes it a lot easier to cast spells using a two handed weapon. Whatever type of gish you make use a two handed weapon unless you take very specific spells or the warcaster feat. There is also not much point in using a ranged weapon because you may as well just play a normal warlock and spam eldritch blast. Pact of the blade only applies to melee weapons anyway but in general a two handed weapon is now your best option. This guide is actually for a multiclass gish and you are actually starting the game as a fighter and multiclassing into the warlock at level 2. The fighter splash level is very important the main reaosns are.

1. Proficiency in heavy armor.
2. Proficiency in constitution saves
3. Weapon style. two handed weapon is the best one probably followed by duelist depending on what you want to do.

You also get a small second wind ability, fighter weapons, strength saves

My rating system (inherited from the WotC boards)
Red
Purple
Black Average
Blue Good stuff you probably want this
Sky Blue You want this period.
Gold Why haven't you taken this yet? A defining choice for the whole class or build

Ability Scores
This is assuming you use point buy or the default stat array. If you are rolling the dice this still gives you an indication of where to place your ability scores.

Strength You are going to be in melee. You want to hit stuff hard with some sort of melee weapon.
Dexterity With the default array something has to below
Constitution Constitution is good for every class, even more important for a gish due to concentration saves and d8 hit dice.
Intelligence Prime dump stat material with the default array.
Wisdom
Charisma A decent charisma is nice. It gives you versatility and the option to use other spells on occasion.
Ideally you want a 16+ strength and 14+ charisma and constitution. With the default array 3 races can get this.

Dragonborn Dragonborn get +2 strength and +1 charisma. Put 15 in your strength score, 13 in your charisma and 14 in you constitution. The breath weapon is also useful for a melee gish.
Half Elf Half Elves get +2 charisma and +1 on two ability scores of their choice. Put the 14 in charisma, 15 in strength and 13 in constitution. This give you 16 strength and charisma at level 1. two extra skills of your choice are also nice.
Human (Variant) What is better than having 16 charisma and strength at level 1? A bonus feat.

This part will focus on the warlock part of the class since level 1 has been used for fighter levels. At level 2 you will be multiclassing into the warlock.

Pact of the Blade. You may think you do not need this pact because of the fighter level. You do so you can take the bladethirst invocation. As I said this guide assumes a narrow focus on the bladelock. Pick this pact if you want multiple attacks.

Patron. You technically have the choice of 3 patrons here. This guide more or less assume you pick the best one for a blade lock which is The fiend. The archfey is also viable IMHO and the Great Old one is best avoided IMHO.

The Fiend You have a 1d8 hit dice (mostly) and the fiend gives you bonus temporary hit points equal to your charisma modifier+warlock level when you kill something. This ability by itself more or less makes the class. Your spell list doesn't matter to much but you have fireball and blindness deafness on it which may be useful later.

The Archfey Not the best option IMHO but it looks viable with several spells on the list and things like misty escape offering some option. A slow burning option but you get the option of greater invisibility later which is great spell for gish PCs to use- advantage to hit, they get disadvantage to hit you.

The Great Old One I can't really see the point of taking this over the other options.

Warlocks are quite versatile so it is up to you what invocations you like. Personally I would lean towards agonizing blast and repelling blast even though you are focused on melee. At level 6 you take blade thirst as your 3rd invocation as it is integral to the build IMHO. At level 13 (due to the 1 fighter level) you take lifedrinker as your invocation. Apart from that it is up to you IMHO.

Warlocks do not get that many spells. Eldritch Blast is still your cantrip of choice as most strength based melee types suck at range. You do not. At level 3 you can cast spells two per short rest until you reach level 12. Those 2 spells are more or less chosen for you already. The 1st no brainer one is hex as it gives you an extra 1d6 damage as a bonus action vs a target. As an added bonus hex applies to weapon attacks and eldritch blast. The other is Armor of Agathys which gives you some extra hit points offsetting the d8 hit dice from warlock and it gives you a buffer until you can start killing stuff if you made a pact with The Fiend. Armor of Agathys gets a lot better if you did not pick the fiend pact and it is also better when you an start casting it in higher level slots. If you prefer not to cast it look at spells such as fireball or spells that do not require concentration such as blindness/deafness as odds are you will have hex up when it matters.

Note when you can cast hex in a 3rd level slot (level 6) it lasts for 8 hours which is longer than a short rest. You can try and cheese this at the start of the day by casting it and then immediately short resting (get up an hour earlier than the party if you have to). This is why 14 constitution and the fighter level for proficiency in con saves is so good.

The bladelock doesn't have much room for a lot of feats. A decent charisma score is required for temp hit points and lifedrinker abilities and for hitting things with eldritch blasts and casting the occasional spell. By level 12 or so you want something like 18 charisma and 18 strength (16 cha, 18 strength is acceptable). This is more useful IMHO than say 20 strength and 16 charisma. The feats I consider good to have are.

Great Weapon Master No surprise here. You get to cleave whenever you kill an opponent or score a critical hit. The -5/+10 part is also useable vs low AC opponents or if you can get buffed or grant yourself advantage via greater invisibility or faerie fire if you made a pact with the Fey.

Polearm Master+ Warcaster An old Combo and RAW it works, not RAI apparently. Basically if Someone walks within 10' of you you can get an attack of opportunity on them. Warcaster lets you cast a spell so you can hit them with eldritch blasts. Combined with rebelling blast they may have difficulty getting near you.

Warcaster You are already proficient in con saves and this just makes it very very hard disrupting your spells. You may want to use a one handed weapon and a shield however and this feat is also good for that.

Sentinel Is always a good feat for a melee character assuming you are the only one in your party with it. Makes it easy to get an attack of opportunity as a reaction. Unlike Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master and Shield Master you do not have to worry about tripping over to many bonus action options.

Just in case.

Great guide, this matches what I've seen in play. I've played a dragonborn bladelock, and some details I've noticed:

Whenever you gain a new warlock level you can retrain one invocation. Fiendish Vigor is a great candidate for that, as the 8 THP you gain (recast until maxed) is a huge buffer at first. But its value diminishes as your HP total increases. By character level 5, you'll have around 40HP, and with 18 CHA you are getting 8 THP per Fiend Pact. By then Vigor is obsolete, if not sooner, and you will need the invocation for other purposes anyway. This is also a good time to retrain a spell into Armor of Agathys, giving 10THP at cl5 and 15 at cl6.

There is a bit of a dead level at 5 for melee, since Extra Attack isn't online but your Eldritch Blast improves to two bolts. This is a good time to have both Agonizing and Repelling, even if you switch out Repelling at level 6 for Thirsting Blade.

For spell selection, I've found it helpful to have an area damage spell prepared for highly-concentrated enemies. Burning Hands or Fireball do the trick, assuming you took Fiend Pact. Hex doesn't scale as well (becoming better only at 6 with Extra Attack), while damage spells benefit from the automatic spellslot level increases.

But a Pact of the Tome Warlock can do much of the same with Booming/Greenfire Blade and Shilelagh, but much less MAD and far quicker. It's not as great though because it doesn't stack with Extra Attack, but given how early it comes online you can just cut to Sorcerer and spam Quicken Spell to come out ahead again.

That and Polearm Master and Warcaster work RAI and RAW with Greenfire/Booming Blade.


Also Archfey should be rated higher because, while a one trick pony, the trick that is Greater Invisibility is just that good. Currently you've got it raated the same as the GOO, despite outright saying it's better.

Yunru said:

But a Pact of the Tome Warlock can do much of the same with Booming/Greenfire Blade and Shilelagh, but much less MAD and far quicker. It's not as great though because it doesn't stack with Extra Attack, but given how early it comes online you can just cut to Sorcerer and spam Quicken Spell to come out ahead again.

That and Polearm Master and Warcaster work RAI and RAW with Greenfire/Booming Blade.


Also Archfey should be rated higher because, while a one trick pony, the trick that is Greater Invisibility is just that good. Currently you've got it raated the same as the GOO, despite outright saying it's better.

Click to expand...

Its a different type of Gish and not everyone may have access to the SCAG cantrips. Also the cantrips will fall way behind if the Bladelock is using the -5/+10 part of GWM on 2 or 3 attacks. The archfey is rated blue, goo is purple and blue outranks purple.

There was an old twitter from the game designers about warcaster+polearm master+eldritch blast and it was not RAI as the extra attack off polearm master is supposed to be a weapon not spell attack but RAW it works.It was a combo spotted in the 1st month 5E PHB was released on the WotC boards.

The RAI with Warcaster + Polearm Master was Polearm Master's OA had to use the weapon in question (as a weapon), which Booming/Greenfire do.

Might want to use a more pinkish purple, at the moment they look very similar next to each other.

Zardnaar said:

Its a different type of Gish and not everyone may have access to the SCAG cantrips. Also the cantrips will fall way behind if the Bladelock is using the -5/+10 part of GWM on 2 or 3 attacks. The archfey is rated blue, goo is purple and blue outranks purple.

There was an old twitter from the game designers about warcaster+polearm master+eldritch blast and it was not RAI as the extra attack off polearm master is supposed to be a weapon not spell attack but RAW it works.It was a combo spotted in the 1st month 5E PHB was released on the WotC boards.

Click to expand...

That's not entirely accurate. For starts, if the GWM is getting a 3rd attack then the GFB is doubling its dice. Assuming best case scenario for both, a crit grants GWM a bonus attack at (2d6+20) damage, so another 27 damage on the 3rd swing. GFB on a crit doubles all dice, so at level 11 an additional (5d8) damage if you count the primary and secondary, so another 22.5 damage.

However, let's assume the average scenario, no crits. We'll assume both GWM strikes hit, which is a huge assumption due to the fact that Bladelocks have no way of increasing their to-hit chance.

1. GWM 2 hits = 4d6 (weapon) + 10 cha + 20 GWM + 6 STR (can't max Str and Cha by level 11, so I'll assume Cha, the math works the same) = 50 damage. One miss, and you're down to 25 damage.

2. GFB 1 hit on 2 targets = 1d8 (weapon) + 2d8 GFB (primary) + 5 cha (Shillelagh on primary) + 2d8 (secondary) + 5 cha (secondary) = 32.5 damage.

Past level 11, it only gets better for the Tomelock. Dip 6 into Draconic Sorc = at least an extra +5 damage, more likely +10 damage (+cha to primary and secondary fire damage). The Bladelock levels off for damage past 11 while the Tomelock just increases even more. Quickened castings of GFB = monstrously more damage when two targets are present.

Best part, the Tomelock doesn't need to stick straight Warlock. Advancing in any class increases their damage because cantrips scale with character level, not Warlock level. Hell, a level 5 Warlock/6 Draconic Sorc does an average of: 42.5 fire damage per turn with no resources (+10 damage from Draconic Sorc). Quicken that into 85 damage and fuel those Quickens with short rest rechargable 3rd level spell slots.

All while still wielding a shield, having access to the Shield spell MUCH sooner than a Bladelock, achieving that damage at character level 11, etc.

Be a variant Human to take Elemental Adapt to deal with the resistance issue and you've got a Warlock gish that just dominates compared to the Bladelock. The only way the Bladelock wins is early stages and if the player doesn't have access to SCAG cantrips.

RulesJD said:

That's not entirely accurate. For starts, if the GWM is getting a 3rd attack then the GFB is doubling its dice. Assuming best case scenario for both, a crit grants GWM a bonus attack at (2d6+20) damage, so another 27 damage on the 3rd swing. GFB on a crit doubles all dice, so at level 11 an additional (5d8) damage if you count the primary and secondary, so another 22.5 damage.

However, let's assume the average scenario, no crits. We'll assume both GWM strikes hit, which is a huge assumption due to the fact that Bladelocks have no way of increasing their to-hit chance.

1. GWM 2 hits = 4d6 (weapon) + 10 cha + 20 GWM + 6 STR (can't max Str and Cha by level 11, so I'll assume Cha, the math works the same) = 50 damage. One miss, and you're down to 25 damage.

2. GFB 1 hit on 2 targets = 1d8 (weapon) + 2d8 GFB (primary) + 5 cha (Shillelagh on primary) + 2d8 (secondary) + 5 cha (secondary) = 32.5 damage.

Past level 11, it only gets better for the Tomelock. Dip 6 into Draconic Sorc = at least an extra +5 damage, more likely +10 damage (+cha to primary and secondary fire damage). The Bladelock levels off for damage past 11 while the Tomelock just increases even more. Quickened castings of GFB = monstrously more damage when two targets are present.

Best part, the Tomelock doesn't need to stick straight Warlock. Advancing in any class increases their damage because cantrips scale with character level, not Warlock level. Hell, a level 5 Warlock/6 Draconic Sorc does an average of: 42.5 fire damage per turn with no resources (+10 damage from Draconic Sorc). Quicken that into 85 damage and fuel those Quickens with short rest rechargable 3rd level spell slots.

All while still wielding a shield, having access to the Shield spell MUCH sooner than a Bladelock, achieving that damage at character level 11, etc.

Be a variant Human to take Elemental Adapt to deal with the resistance issue and you've got a Warlock gish that just dominates compared to the Bladelock. The only way the Bladelock wins is early stages and if the player doesn't have access to SCAG cantrips.

Click to expand...

We always have other PCs who can buff anyone using GWM. Bless spell or advantage. We have the SCAG other groups may not. GWM also works when you kill something as well and you get to cleave so 2 or 3 attacks by level 6 is not that unusual.

Not a bladelock but from what you are doing you may as well go Sorlock- warlock2/SorcererXYZ and blow the crap out of everything. Its not just damage either its tanking ability which the temporary hit point fiend pact lets you do. And extra 7-8 hit points whenever you kill something+armour of agathys makes you quite sticky.